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Summary
Summary
" A fascinating thriller, well crafted and relentless ... A cross between Tony Hillerman and Larry McMurtry, this is one hell of a good read."--Douglas Preston, author of Tyrannosaur Canyon and Blasphemy
The cowboys who work on the ranchlands of Montana expect more than their fair share of trouble. One of them is Mike Wire, a former homicide detective. Mike is about to learn murder and mayhem can happen under Motnana's big skies, too. Beneath the earth lie enough dinosaur fossils to fill several museum collections---and make a fortune for whoever claims them first. Soon he will have to combine everything he learned as a cop with everything he knows as a cowboy to protect the people and the land he could never live without.
Author Notes
Homer H. Hickam Jr. was born in 1943 in Coalwood, Va. and earned a degree in industrial engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1964. He served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1972, rising to the rank of captain. Hickam also served as an engineer at the Army Missile Command in Huntsville, Ala. and with the Army Corps of Engineers in West Germany. He has been with NASA since 1981.
Homer Hickam is a rare combination of practicing scientist and literate storyteller. As a NASA trainer he has taught astronauts to walk on the moon. As an author he has written a poignant, personal memoir about how he became an aerospace engineer.
In Rocket Boys (1998) Hickam tells how his fascination with rockets began in the 50s Sputnik space race, developed into a teenage rocket club, and led to Hickam's winning a gold and a silver medal at the National Science Fair in 1960. His inspiring story, told with honesty and humor, had its beginnings as an article in Smithsonian's Air and Space magazine in 1994 and is being adapted as a motion picture.
Hickam's other book Torpedo Junction: U-Boat War Off America's East Coast, 1942 (1989) is also praised as a literary achievement. It is a fascinating, fast-paced narrative that draws on his background as a scuba diver and explorer of sunken ships. Hickam has also written several shipwreck articles for major magazines.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Dinosaur bones and the people who covet them take center stage in Hickam's uncharacteristically bland latest, which plays out in Montana, where hardworking ranchers are hemmed in by the Bureau of Land Management, ecoterrorists, and neighbors with a bunker mentality. Retired L.A. homicide detective Mike Wire is now the foreman of the Square C Ranch, where the widowed owner, Jeanette Coulter, is the steely, unobtainable object of his affection. After paleontologist Dr. Norman "Pick" Pickford works out a deal to dig for fossils on Jeanette's property, Mike assists Pick's team, among whom is a sexy Russian Mike soon begins an affair with. Soon after Pick happens on a discovery that could prove to be revolutionary, a menacing visitor is murdered and Mike realizes that the fossils may be worth killing for. Unfortunately, it takes a very long time for the mystery to kick in, and Hickam (Rocket Boys) reserves all the action for the story's climax. In the end, the science fascinates more than the characters or the leisurely plot. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Cowboys and criminals mix it up in the new West over the bones of dead monsters.Hickam (Red Helmet, 2008, etc.)hits the sweet spot for cowboy fiction with this dusty, inspired mystery about paleontologists and lifelong ranchers in the high desert. The book's hero is Mike Wire, a former L.A.P.D. homicide detective who abandoned Hollywood 12 years earlier to become a foreman on the Square C Ranch, where he hides his unrequited love for its owner, Jeanette Coulter, and looks out for her son, Ray. Hickam breathes life into his square-jawed wrangler, lending him a unique mix of tenderness and stubbornness. Before long, Mike develops an interest in the area's paleontological history. Ray's idle discovery of some theropod bones draws the attention of Dr. Norman "Pick" Pickford, who soon has gaggles of students unearthing bones from a butte on Jeanette's property. Then strange things start happening, raising Mike's suspicions. First, a few animals are shot, with clues that lead to an environmental terrorist. And eventually a Russian interloper is found dead with a pickaxe in his head. Nobody is on Mike's side as he starts figuring things out, least of all the locals. "I know you're still new out here but I thought ten years was enough for you to learn a few of our rules," warns the local tough guy. "A man could get shot, he wanders where he's not supposed to go." The plot gets a bit rickety near the end, but Hickam's obvious love for Montana and his newly acquired fascination with paleontologyearned at the side of paleontologist Jack Horner, one of the trade's most famous practitionersmakes this tale worth digging into.The rare novel that pits science against cowboy doggedness, getting both of them right.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Former Los Angeles police detective-turned-Montana cowboy Mike Wire is enjoying the quiet life on the Square C ranch until the arrival of the titular paleontologist. The scientist's zeal impresses the ranch's owner, widow Jeanette Coulter, who allows him to hunt for T. rex bones, much to Mike's surprise. The mysteries begin with cattle killings and strange engine noises at night, and soon more newcomers appear, including a retired Hollywood producer and his heavily tattooed Russian friend. Environmental activists and government land agents add to the suspect pool, and when a murder occurs at the county Fourth of July party, Mike is forced to combine his skill sets to discover the truth and protect those he cares about. Verdict Details of cattle ranching, paleontological fieldwork, and small-town life all combine to heighten the realism and suspense in Hickam's (Rocket Boys) latest book, which should appeal to lovers of mysteries and the West.-Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.